Archives

Site Links

Here’s West Coast beating North by nearly 100 points in the 2012 elimination final. This year they beat us by much less. Will North ever beat West Coast again? Based on recent history, it’s looking very unlikely. Which makes me very sad.

So in my last post, first written on the day of the latest Labor leadership challenge, I stated that the latest Labor Leadership challenge was another waste of time and nothing would happen.

That night the Labor Party had a new leader.

On the same day that I was complaining that all this leadership speculation never seemed to go anywhere and wouldn’t go anywhere.

Then it went somewhere quite major.

However, by stating that the Labor Party should put up or shut up, it is possible that I caused the leadership change. Maybe I am one of these so-called ‘faceless’ men.

Nobody knows what the faceless men look like – otherwise they’d have faces, so I could be one of them. I mean, unless the faceless man was literally a man without a face, then he’d be easy to spot and would look very strange.

I know I had nothing to do with influencing things either way. It was just a very awkward coincidence and I was wrong.

I’ve never been one for great timing. I was even born on September 9 – a very awkward day. Especially for a North Melbourne supporter.

Last year I celebrated my birthday on the exact same day that West Coast belted us by nearly 100 points in the first final. It was the worst birthday ever – apart from a few years earlier when Geelong smashed us by more than 100 points. Again in a final, and again on my birthday.

At least I wasn’t born on September 11, which is the cheapest day to fly anywhere in the world.

One of my favourite things is to have my opinion challenged, only to discover that I was incorrect. I’ve learnt something.

What’s frustrating is when someone jumps on an error, and thinks it proves something general about me being untrustworthy, stupid and inconsiderate. All those things may be true, but that’s not proven by just one mistake.

If you have one mouldy strawberry, that doesn’t prove that all strawberries are mouldy. Also, you can usually eat around it the mould, with varying amounts of success.

Pointing out that someone is factually incorrect is fine. Accusing them of having no idea at all and being untrustworthy, well that’s a much larger claim. One which usually results in people being much more reticent to admit that they’re wrong.

Also, I can’t see into the future. My opinion might be based on an assumption of a future event, such as North Melbourne wining the Grand Final or Julia Gillard leading the Labor Party to the next election. Both now as likely as each other, and for having faith in either, I now look like a fool.

Politicians aren’t going to be right all the time. It’s impossible. They can’t see into the future either, and most of the time their opinions are based on a lot more than their unexplainable devotion to a football team that’s always on the brink of a merger, and a political leader with a lower approval rating than white carob chocolate. Very few people like both white and carob chocolate.

So we skewer politicians anytime they’re wrong, so brutally that they’re terrified of saying anything of substance. They’ve worked out that you lose far less votes by saying nothing, instead of saying something and possibly being incorrect. Instead we’re just inundated with the same tired slogans about Work Choices, the carbon tax, and so on.

We bemoan the lack of policy, the way politicians refuse to provide any direct answers, and I think part of it is our fault.

Look back to the old political debates. Politicians used to talk like real people, have actual opinions and proper arguments. Parliamentary question time used to be a lot less of the farcical slogan repeating rubbish that it is today.

Instead of deriding politicians who do this and never letting them forget a mistake, we should be appreciating their strength of character.

However.

While we should let people make genuine mistakes, repeatedly trusting and believing someone who is wrong all the time is just idiotic.